Xi'an Institute Of Optical Machinery's Pan An, Zhejiang University's Wan Yating Selected As Ambassadors For Optical Society Of America

Recently, the Optical Society of America (Optica, formerly known as OSA) announced the list of The Optica Ambassadors for 2024.
Among them, Associate Researcher Pan An of Xi'an Institute of Optical Mechanics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, was selected. It is noteworthy that among the 80 Society Ambassadors that have been produced, Pan An is the first Chinese person from a Chinese research institution.
On this occasion, the Optica Foundation announced 10 distinguished early career members who will provide mentoring and advice to young optics and photonics researchers around the world.
According to Optica's official profile, Pan An is an associate professor and principal researcher at the Xi'an Institute of Optics and Precision Machinery, Chinese Academy of Sciences, and director of the Interdisciplinary Frontier Center at the State Key Laboratory of Transient Optics and Photonics.
He graduated from Nanjing University of Science and Technology, China, with a bachelor's degree in electronic science and technology in 2014. and a doctorate degree in optical engineering in 2020. Meanwhile, An Pan was a visiting graduate student at Bar-Ilan University, Israel, in 2016 and at California Institute of Technology, USA, in 2018 - 2019, with main research interests in computational optical imaging and biophotonics.
An Pan was awarded Forbes China's 30 Outstanding Young People Under 30 in 2021, Outstanding Doctoral Dissertation of the Chinese Academy of Sciences in 2021, and Special Dean's Award of the Chinese Academy of Sciences in 2020.In 2019, he was awarded the Boris Stoichev Scholarship, the First Prize for the Best Poster Award at the 69th Congress of Nobel Laureates in Lindau, Germany (Lindau Scholar), and the International Society for Photonic Engineering Society for Optics & Photonics Education Scholarship (SPIE Optics & Photonics Education Scholarship).
He has published more than 30 peer-reviewed journal papers and served as a reviewer for more than 20 peer-reviewed journals. He is an early career member of OSA and SPIE. He is committed to providing career advice, technical knowledge, and mentoring to students and early career professionals in the optics and photonics community by sharing stories and experiences gained through his own multidisciplinary and multicultural research, education, and volunteer experiences.
This year's recipients of the Optical Society of America Ambassadors are listed below (in no particular order):
① Angeles Camacho Rosales, from Coractive, a leading specialty fiber optics company, Canada
George Dwapanyin, University of St. Andrews, UK.
(iii) Katarzyna Komolibus, Tyndall National Institute, Ireland.
An Pan, Xi'an Institute of Optical Precision and Mechanical Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences, China
⑤ Ana Karen Reyes, UTEC - Universidad Tecnológica de Tulancingo, China
⑤ Ana Karen Reyes, UTEC - Universidad Tecnológica de Tulancingo, India
⑦ Chiara Trovatello, Columbia University, USA
⑧ Ahmet Turnali, Corning Incorporated, USA
⑨ Gavrielle Untracht, Technical University of Denmark, Denmark
Yating Wan, King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST), Saudi Arabia.
As you can see, in addition to Pan An from a Chinese research institution, there is also Yating Wan from King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST), Saudi Arabia, who is also from China.
According to public information, Yating Wan received her Bachelor of Science (B.Sc.) degree in Optics from Zhejiang University in 2012 (GPA: 3.97/4.0) and her Ph.D. degree from the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology in 2017 (GPA: 3.94/4.0) under the supervision of Prof. Kei May Lau and Prof. John Bowers.
Ya-Ting Wan has been working on silicon-based quantum dot lasers and their applications in optical communications/optical interconnections for more than a decade.
She was awarded the King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST) Doctoral Distinguished Research Award in the College of Engineering for 2016-2017, and graduated from the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology with a PhD in 2017 and was awarded the "Excellence in Research Award", the highest honor for PhD students in the university.From 2017 to 2022, Dr. Wan is working at the University of California Santa Barbara University of California, Santa Barbara, USA, from 2017 to 2022, Dr. Wan conducted postdoctoral research in Prof. John Bowers' group at the University of California, Santa Barbara, USA, and started intensive collaborations with Intel, Apple, etc. Dr. Wan was awarded the 2021 CLEO Tingye Li Innovation Prize, and his work on heterogeneous photonic integration of quantum dots was the first one to be approved by Intel after the establishment of the Research Center of 2021. Integrated Photonics and was the first university program to be approved after the establishment of Intel's Research Center of Integrated Photonics in 2021.
She was awarded the PIERS Young Scientist Award in 2018, nominated for the Stars of Tomorrow Engineering Women's Award by the Asian Dean's Forum in 2018, and captured the Stars of Tomorrow EECS Women's Academic Achievement Award in 2020 in recognition of her pioneering work on the integration of long-wave quantum dot lasers on silicon substrates.
In 2022, Ardenne joined King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST) full-time, founded the Integrated Photonics Laboratory, and was honored with the 2022 Global Optics Star of the Future Award from Light: Science & Applications.
About The Optica Ambassadors
Created in 2016, the Optical Society of America Ambassadors program is a lifetime honor, with 10 Ambassadors selected globally each year through a competitive selection process, to reward their outstanding contributions to student chapters and their active roles in advancing the vibrancy of optics and photonics. At the same time, the Ambassador program serves as an important avenue for developing the next generation of Society leaders.